- The Anthology of Haiku in France (J. Antonini, Aleas, Lyon 2003) presents 80 authors and 800 poems in french and english. As far as style is concerned, nearly all
French haikus have three verses, but often with French-style “additions”, that thus give them a “French touch” (all examples are taken from The Anthology of Haiku in France).
- Many French-language haikus are regular, following the classical 5-7-5 Japanese metrics, such as in this example :
-
- Rateau délaissé (5 feet)
- sursis pour les feuilles rousses (7 feet)
- automne en suspens (5 feet) (Anick Baulard)
-
- Forgotten rake
- the red leaves are on probation
- and autumn is waiting (Anick Baulard)
-
- But since French is not a heavily-accented language, several techniques are often used to intensify the rhythm. Such as splitting up the sentences
into strongly meaning words :
-
-
- Qu’était ce poème ?
- Mots ? Jambes ? Petite pierre ? Oubli ?
- Mon corps d’automne (Jean Antonini)
-
- What was this poem ?
- Words ? Legs ? Pebble ? Oblivion ?
- My autumn body (Jean Antonini)
-
-
- Or by simply shortening the verses :
-
- La nuit
- peu à
peu
- se détache
de nous (Alain Kervern)
-
- The
night
- little
by little
- retreats
form us (Alain Kervern)
-
-
- deuxième
tiers
- à côté
des ciseaux
- démangeaisons
(Dominique Chipot)
-
- tax form
- next to
scissors
- itches
(Dominique Chipot)
-
-
- Alliterations are often used as well :
-
- Le
chapeau qui pleut
- de
l’ombre sur tes seins blancs :
- un désir
s’envole (Jean-Pierre Hanniet)
-
- This hat
which scatters
- shade on
your white breasts :
- a desire
disappears (Jean-Pierre Hanniet)
-
-
- And discreet rhyming is likewise possible :
-
- Sur la
petite
- route du
cimetière
- le
soleil – mon père (Danier Py)
-
- On the
small
- road to
the cemetery
- the sun
– my dad (Daniel Py)
-
-
- Finally, mixing the semantic unit offers an original way to give a “French touch” to haiku style. In the following poem, the understood meaning
changes at the end of each verse. After the first verse, one expects a woman, after the second, a flower, and only after the last verse emerges the real meaning of the poem, the breaking dawn :
-
-
-
L’absente de tout
- bouquet
la voilà me dit
- en se
montrant l’aube (Jean Monod)
-
- The
absent of all
- bouquets
here she is
- says the
appearing dawn (Jean Monod)
-
- In the same Anthology of Haiku in France, the question “Why have I choosen the haiku ?” leads to various answers. The most
of them are from existential order rather than litterary. One speaks about moment of life, attitude towards the world, grace of short-lived. This attraction for the observation of the world goes
until the refusal of sitting at a table for writing. Someones say that you can write haiku everywhere, and this fact is very convenient with te fast rhythm of the modern life. The idea of powerful,
of totality is also associated with the short poem : In three verses, all is sayed. One can grasp the world. Someones suggest an experience, an ascetic practice : To polish his mind like a mirror
with the haiku ; to reach the detachment, the wisdom.
- On a litterary point of view, one speaks about polysemia : to say a lot with few words. To go until the limit of language.
Someone evokes the haiku as a language of a no language. This lovely definition is noted : Haiku is like flower growing from nowhere. This kind of writing work is at the opposite of the most
innocent realism.
- At the end, I would like to underline the social movement unuseful in the french poetry background with the creation of French
Haiku Association. Around the review Gong, directed by Dominique Chipot, and the Internet site afhaiku.org animated by Serge Tomé, some popular exchanges expand : competitions, expositions,
meetings, books. The French Haiku Association is preparing a European Anthology of Haiku for the next year.
-